


Life Blood

by TheRedPaladin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood, I Don't Even Know, I'm Sorry, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Self-Harm, Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:32:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7705951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedPaladin/pseuds/TheRedPaladin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE/SELF-HARM)<br/>PLEASE READ NOTES AT THE END</p>
<p>"As the lights turned on, Keith immediately felt numbness wash over him at the sight he witnessed. It took his brain a moment to even register what he was seeing."<br/>-------<br/>Keith finds Lance having hurt himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Blood

Keith wasn't prepared for what he was about to walk into.

Lance had been missing from dinner and even though space goo _was_ getting old, he knew the other boy loved to eat. So where was he? Keith knocked impatiently on Lance's door, peering through the crack.

"Lance?" The lights were off, was he even in there? 

Not being sure where else he could be, the red paladin slowly cracked open the door, his eyes squinting through the darkness. 

"...Lance?"

Heavy breathing could be heard from the other side of the room. Was he...? Oh God.. Keith flushed slightly at the thought before furrowing his brows and biting his lip.

"Lance, what have you been doing?! We've all been wondering where you've been!" he demanded, reaching for the light switch.

_Click._

As the lights turned on, Keith immediately felt numbness wash over him at the sight he witnessed. It took his brain a moment to even register what he was seeing.

Lance was slumped again the wall, breathing heavily, His chest rising and falling rhythmically. His face was pale and flushed of blood, his mouth slightly open. And his wrists... They were covered in the bright red blood that was still oozing from the cuts on the boy's wrists. A rusty, bloody knife lay next to Lance's body.

Lance looked up at Keith weakly.

"Didn't.... want you to... see..." he started, before a heavy exhale took away his words. He smiled that goddamn goofy smile. "Sorry.."

Keith was frozen, he didn't know what to do. Nothing in his training had prepared him for this. Something akin to electricity jolted in his body and he found himself next to Lance, his eyes wide and teary. 

"Lance...! Why would you...? When did...?" Keith's words tripped over his tongue as he tried to speak, his voice high and panicked. 

Trying to think quick, Keith ripped the bedsheets off Lance's bed, gathering them in his now sweaty hands and trying his best to mop up the blood weeping from Lance's cuts. They were deep.

Everything felt like it was in slow motion, colors became more vivid, time distorted. Keith's body felt like it wasn't there any more, everything was centered on Lance right now, he was the only one that mattered. Like his entire existence right now was focused on his friend.

Keith wrapped the sheets tightly around Lance's wrists, shaking with panic. "You'll be okay, buddy. You'll be fine, okay?" he muttered as he knotted the sheets frantically. Red patches leaked through the fabric at a frightening pace.

Keith noticed the sheets were becoming wet with a clear liquid too, it wasn't blood so what was it? Water? Reaching a hand up to his face he felt the tears, pouring down his hot face and mixing into the blood of his best friend. "N-No...." Keith muttered absently as he wiped the tears quickly on part of the sheet. 

"L-Lance!! I'm gonna go get help!" Keith held the shoulders of his friend, looking into his glazed over eyes. "You'll be okay, I promise!!"

Lance smiled ever so slightly. "S'too late." he whispered, the colour draining from his face by the second. "Was nice to know.. you..." the brown-haired boy added, before closing his eyes delicately. 

"Lance?" Keith yelled in alarm, noticing the other boys breathing getting shallower by the moment. Keith listened for a moment in silence, waiting for him to burst out laughing, waiting for him to tell him this was all a stupid prank. No longer had these thoughts left Keith's mind that he noticed the lack of breathing. 

He was asleep, surely.

The amount of thoughts running through Keith's head at this moment felt like his brain would explode at any moment. Lance couldn't be dead. Not Lance. Not the happy Latino man who would fight with him on a daily basis but yet was so kind and loving to everyone. That stupid idiot who had the most charming smile. The guy he had fallen in love with so long ago, but had never gotten the courage to confess to him.

"Lance...?" Keith searched Lance's face for a sign of life, an eyebrow twitch, a single breathe, a stupid grin, anything. There was nothing but quiet and stillness. "Lance, come on.... Don't be stupid..." Shaking the other boy by the shoulders, Keith was just rewarded with him slumping even further. 

It finally hit him.

"LANCE!" Keith let out the most heartbroken cry the castle had ever heard. The entire atmosphere seemed to shudder under the pure intensity of the grief. Lights shot on across the corridors, the sound of Keith's cries masking the footsteps thundering toward the room. 

Keith didn't even know that the rest of the team were there. He couldn't see them, hear them, feel them. All that existed was the hollow and raw pain that inhabited his entire being as he knelt in Lance's blood, cradling the other paladin. He pressed their foreheads heads together, hair sticking together, hot tears streaming down his face onto Lance's cooling skin. 

Keith had always wanted to experience emotions as intense as the others seemed to. But not like this. Not losing his best friend, his pillar, his could-be lover. Keith wailed and cried into Lance's neck as he held him, his body heaving with each sharp inhale as he choked on his own breath.

The rest of the team stood behind the black-haired boy in frozen horror. The castle hummed in the background quietly, pierced by the noises of Keith's grief and the joining choir of the others as they wept.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm not certain why I wrote this. And I'm sorry that this is my first fic on here, too! It was just something I needed to get off my chest. Originally I was going to kill Keith, but I felt Lance would write better because of how central he is to the team and how he has the 'goofy happy guy' exterior.
> 
> On that note, you probably noticed he killed himself without an explanation. I did this deliberately. Not everyone who kills themselves are depressed, stereotypical emo or whatever. It can happen to anyone, even those you see as happy and lighthearted. 
> 
> If you, or anyone you know are considering suicide, PLEASE talk to a medical professional ASAP or call a suicide hotline. Here is a list of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines
> 
> Thanks for reading and I hope you don't hate me too much!


End file.
